Early ‘Desolation of Smaug’ Reaction is Promising…

Those who were a little disappointed in the first Hobbit movie may find something more to their liking in the second.

The Desolation of Smaug had its first screening last night in Hollywood, and while people are embargoed from talking about it until the 8th of this month, the initial reaction coming out of the screening points to a movie closer to what people were expecting following the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Here are some selected reactions form Twitter:

Embargoed from expressing what I thought of The Desolation Of Smaug. So I’ll just say ::thumbsup::

— Nick de Semlyen (@NickdeSemlyen) December 3, 2013

Okay, Hobbit 2 … That’s more like it.

— Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) December 3, 2013

So… I saw the world premiere of #TheDesolationOfSmaug and WOOOOOW… I loved it. My 2nd favorite of the whole franchise. Smaug was INSANE.

— Joe Marino (@Joe_N_Marino) December 3, 2013

“The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug” sports some of the franchise’s best moments (with quite a few coming directly from @EvangelineLilly).

— Joe Marino (@Joe_N_Marino) December 3, 2013

@SiUttley I went in with 0% expectations (didn’t LOVE the first one). Very surprised. Superb.

— Joe Marino (@Joe_N_Marino) December 3, 2013

@jesafreeney That dragon freak’n ROCKED. The movie was already great outside of that, but Benedict put it to a WHOLE new level of badass.

— Joe Marino (@Joe_N_Marino) December 3, 2013

Just home from the ‘Smaug’ premiere which is a treat for your eye bulbs and ear drums. The barrels set-piece is PJ in especially fine form.

— edgarwright (@edgarwright) December 3, 2013

Apparently the movie does have a slightly shorter run-time than the first installment, which would make sense as this was originally going to be the last Hobbit film before splitting it off into a trilogy. It’ll be out in a couple weeks, and it will be released in HFR despite rumors to the contrary…